EDINBURGH.- This autumn the Royal Scottish Academy will present Reduct: Abstraction and Geometry in Scottish Art.

With works by 30 artists on view, the exhibition will examine the ways in which non-objective expression remains a compelling approach one hundred years after it was first taken up by the avant-garde, focusing specifically on the interest in geometry in the recent history of Scottish art.

The title of the exhibition, Reduct, relates to the centrality of reduction and distillation to abstraction. Framed in a historical context of internationally significant Scottish artists including Alan Davie HRSA, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham RSA and Sir Eduardo Paolozzi HRSA, the exhibition will highlight the pursuit of non-objective form, through the prism of geometry, to be an important movement in Scottish painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Works by important contemporary artists including Toby Paterson, Arthur Watson PPRSA and David Batchelor will show geometric abstraction to be a relevant mode of expression for artists shaping the current field of Scottish art. As well as works by Royal Scottish Academicians and other prominent contemporary artists, the exhibition will feature new works by emerging artists including Olivia Turner, Bronwen Sleigh and Marcus Murison.

Whilst the gestural, semi-abstract style propagated by greats of Scottish painting such as Sir Robin Philipson PPRSA and Joan Eardley RSA has long been considered the preferred, dominant style in Scottish art, Reduct will reveal the ways in which the pared-back elegance of geometric abstraction has become both a pertinent, impactful means of expression for artists and a desirable field for collectors. Challenging the dominance of figuration and semi-abstraction in recent Scottish art history, the exhibition will show geometric abstraction to be not only a trend, but a tradition, extending through the latter half of twentieth century to the present.




Artists: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham | Louise Barrington | David Batchelor | William Braithwaite | Doug Cocker | Alan Davie | Rachel Duckhouse | Gareth Fisher | Paul Furneaux | Jo Ganter | Jake Harvey | Hetty Haxworth | Rhona Jack | Jack Knox | Jim Lambie | Rosalind Lawless | David Lemm | Ian McCulloch | John McLean | Marcus Murison | Glen Onwin | Eduardo Paolozzi | Toby Paterson | Jim Pattison | Frank Pottinger | Philip Reeves | Katie Schwab | Bronwen Sleigh | Rhona Taylor | Olivia Turner | Arthur Watson

All works will be available for sale.

Stuart Duffin: Peace Starts with a Smile
Stuart Duffin: Peace Starts with a Smile will be on view at the Royal Scottish Academy this autumn.

The city of Jerusalem has been central to the life and work of Stuart Duffin RSA for a quarter of a century now, since his first residency there as part of a collaboration between Jerusalem Print Workshop and Glasgow Print Studio. In 2016 Duffin was granted a Gillies Bequest Award by the Royal Scottish Academy to finance an artist’s residency at the Jerusalem Print Workshop. This exhibition, comprising etching, mezzotint, digital printmaking collage, oils and audio-visual work, is largely the result of that residency.

For Duffin, Jerusalem remains in many respects the centre of the world, historically, geographically and geopolitically, and therefore indicative of much wider global concerns. The complex issues of conflict and resolution have become a constant influence on Duffin’s approach to life. Two key words now inform and govern his response; ‘coexistence’ and ‘compassion’. This, he feels, enables him to dispense with politics and instead focus on principles.

Over the decades, Duffin has ‘become convinced that the pursuit of dialogue is vital to a deeper understanding of resolution and is a proven route towards global tolerance and coexistence’. Art, as evidenced by the public response to his work, is in a prime position to both initiate and support dialogue, ‘helping us build bridges of co-operation and understanding, enabling us to envisage a better future for communities at home and abroad’.

Born in 1959, Duffin studied Fine Art Printmaking at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen (1978 – 1982). Duffin is based between his home studio in the north east of Scotland, Glasgow and Jerusalem. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1996 and a Member in 2005.